Last year when my Mother was bidding farewell to her years on earth, my sister who was staying with her. Passed the time, drawing and colouring, memories of another time.

Change happen, with “progress” comes destruction, to “make way” for “infill” buildings that are meant to fill in where older homes , single family homes with laneways, garages that held the cars that used to fit inside them, and usually have pretty front lawns, and backyards, big enough for small patios and gardens, either filled with flowers in season, or vegetables.

Now these homes when their owners pass away, are taken over by builders who tear them down, and put in two homes on a lot that was meant for one. Usually, architecture that is cold and sterile. Forget a lawn or garden spaces. Cement, pavement and more cold man-made materials, usually in various shades of grays and blacks. Garages if there, are usually part of the main floor, still usually too small for the bigger cars of today, so they end up always outside parked on the single space of the paved front of the dwelling.

Sad, but that is progress. If you are near, or can easily get to green space. Treasure it. Take the time to enjoy it. Listen to the birds when they visit (if they do) enjoy the fresh earthly smells of spring, and watch as the young flowers unfold to embrace another season of “life”

Life, can be fleeting. Live in the moment. Enjoy each and every second of your day. don’t wait till it fades away.

Today they will tear down the house next door. It has been here since we moved here, and actually since this area was developed. Slowly we have watched as the neighbour around has undergone changes. This was on older neighbourhood, single family homes, mature trees. not small, not too big, decent city lots, lane ways, Stand alone garages in the backyards. Lawns and gardens, pets, families a place where neighbours sat out on the front porch, or enjoyed evening walks to the parks or community center and exchanged greetings with friends they’d known for years. First the children grow up and move away, and then the parents either move away to “different” homes to better meet their needs, or pass away. Then little by little the community start to change, the small single family homes, are being replaced by double and some times triple dwellings on lots that once held only 1 house. Its call infill. It is not that the new buildings are ugly, it is simply they don’t fit in. They are like boxes, build with small floor plans and lots of stairs, there is barely any land for a yard, and in the front basically all that is seen is cement parking spot(s) and or maybe a car port so that this little living space can accommodate 2 small cars.

So far we have been lucky, most of these modern box buildings have been going on around but not to close to use. Yesterday we survived a day of loud noise pollution while old insulation was pumped out of the attic. Yes an attic.. The old house even had a real basement, a huge big and mature trees. Guess what, the trees were the first to go.. Happened in the back of us too. Behind us when we moved here was a very unique home constructed from two old train cars, yes that’s right, train cars, the original owner had worked for the now defunct train line that traveled between Canada and the United States. It had beautiful old oaks on the property, when the new owners came along, the first thing to go there was the old oak. In the city their are laws about the removal of such old trees, but the builder found a way around it. So it was taken down, and all the wild life that lived there was left with out a home.

There is nothing I can do about these changes, progress is going to happen, and I might not always be happy with the changes, but I will learn to adapt. For today I will mourn the passing of an old friend, and hope that thee young Japanese Maple that was planted a few years ago, will be saved. My neighbour who sold her family home, has asked that it be saved and given back to her if it will not be left to grow and flourish. I saw that the tree has a big red line drawn around it in the snow. I will pray that it will be saved ….. all in life is precious.

Recent Posts

Blogroll

Archives

Art of living – Q

TAOIST Life is Art (Perfect Liberty precept #1)
contact info.- via blogs
--- there are two energies, Yin and Yang = ONE
---to have balance we must live each moment
of our lives.. with Makoto (sincerity)
The only constant in life is change. I am grounded in the reality of Living.
This is true, in all worlds. RL or virtual. I am me and only me.